Hey Jack. The Living Off Grid is Illegal link doesn’t work.

Jack, stop predicting stuff… really dude, you’re screwing everything by being right all the time… Or at least start predicting something more cheerful!

Little House in the Big Woods is a good book. Kids hated it at first, my 3rd grader liked her summer reading homework. She was telling me, Paw had to make his own bullets last night.

A repeat but a great repeat! 🙂

Jack, the link to Living Off grid is illegal is still broken.

PS. Jack’s links being broken makes me think of Bigfoot. Mass marketing of beef jerky reminds me to make some biltong instead.

Was there no “conflicted monday” segment this week?

Jack,
You’re totally wrong on the cupcake issue.
You MUST obtain a legal document made of special paper and ink and hang it on the wall to “sterilize” the home the cupcakes are being made in. –AND, you MUST also rid your home of as many germs as possible by removing filthy dollar bills and send them to the government.

“Let them eat cake… as long as they pay us for the privilage.” 😉

How an Anarchist Society Worked

Well… this turned into a much longer post than I expected. Let me get to the bottom line first. The first organized anarchy in history can be found in the Bible. (See the Book of Judges.) It worked, sort of, for a while but their were problems. (See below). The US Constitution is organized anarchy but you aren’t going to get anyone to follow it because they don’t have the background to understand it. That is how Nancy Pelosi is able to get away saying to foolish things she does because the public, mostly, does not understand the basics and all of us yelling at them won’t help. It’s going to take some real education to give them the framework to understand the Constitution and it’s not going to happen overnight.

OK… that’s my bottom line. Now I’ll say it all again with a lot more words…

There is an historical example of a anarchist society that worked for a time and worked well. They were the Hebrews after the Exodus and before King Saul was selected by lot. That society depended largely on tribal associations and a general set of rules. The society at that time was described thus…

“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes. ” — Judges 17:6

How did that work out? It worked but not too well. The people seemed to fall away from the rules set out at the founding and made up their own rules. Some of those rules conflicted greatly with their neighbors and in a time of threat, there was disunity.

Judges rose up and decided on matters that were too difficult for an individual or that concerned cross-tribal responsibilities or interests. These were charismatic leaders, but they only acted when called upon…. usually when some neighboring tribe attacked. Then the Judge would organize the response. In one case Judge Deborah offered to lead the attack since everyone else seemed disinclined to go unless she led the charge. Thus she took credit for the win and the enemy was delivered “into the hand of a woman.” It was a little embarrassing for the guys.

Eventually, these tribes would call upon the Prophet Samuel to select a King so that the tribes could be “like other peoples” and so the King could “fight their battles.” They gave up their personal responsibility.

In the end, the organized anarchy succumbed to laziness. What did God think? He said He was disappointed in the people that they had given up on God, but He would allow it and King Saul was selected by lot. He got the short straw so to speak. Nevertheless, King Saul plowed his own fields and like a judge, only acted when called upon to act. Although King Saul was a grumpy guy who often didn’t follow the rules, he wasn’t terrible either. It was probably King Solomon who ended his kingship becoming a bit of a fool and caused damage to the kingship and his son sealed the deal and turned the kingship into the travesty that it became.

Thus anarchy failed not because of the people who implemented it, though they had their issues, but rather it failed because their children could not maintain it.

These groups were following what we would call a “military discipline” and in fact many of the terms we use today come from those military-style groups although the words have lost their military meaning and have morphed into religious meanings:

Holy, Holiness (kadosh): a separation or a separate battlement apart from the main fortress. An outside rampart. Barbed wire obstacle.

East, Eastward [the direction toward which you pray] (kadam): – An early morning raid. A preemptive attack.

Good deed (mitzvah): an order given to a group of soldiers numbering 1,000 or more. Related words: Commander of a battalion of soldiers and the battalion itself.

The Constitution of the United States, if followed reasonably, is organized anarchy. It sets out the limits of an organizing body and pretty much lets the rest of it fly. Does anyone follow that set of general rules today? No. They don’t and they won’t because the Constitution is no longer taught. It’s not even taught as well as it was when I was a kid and that was fairly poor teaching.

So… I’d say the first goal is to teach the Constitution and why we should follow it. I dare say that the first effort will be fruitless unless one also has a good background in the Bible and that in itself will be tough going even for Christians.

I remember my daughter (Jewish) in middle school being taught religion as a history lesson. I was a little miffed that they were lumping the Jews into the same chapter as the Phoneticians, but I was OK with it. This is how it went… the Jews went here, the Jews went there… Mount Sinai… King David… done. No philosophy. Just basic, bare bones outline of history like one would expect.

Then came an entire chapter of Christianity. They did NOT treat this like history. Instead they were talking about the Eucharist, turning wine into blood, raising of the dead. My kids came home wide-eyed thinking “Dawn of the Dead” was coming any day now. These are tough concepts to teach a kid. At least my kids had some background (albeit a Jewish background). I can’t imagine what the other kids were going through. The teacher had to go over the chapter twice and even the Christian kids didn’t get it.

Why didn’t the kids understand? Presumably most of them were Christians. Right? They must have heard some of this as they went to church. Right?

WRONG!

They had never been taught their own religion in a comprehensive manner as one might learn it in school. They didn’t understand how to apply what they had learned in any practical sense. They couldn’t see how many of these ideas might apply to them directly. They ZONED OUT ON SUNDAY…. apparently. That’s not a criticism. Most kids zone out, but teaching religious basics needs to be systematic. Don’t assume. At the least such a background in religious subjects will help your kids recognize when they are being scammed by some holy roller on TV! So… its important to learn even if you are an atheist.

Regarding the Constitution, don’t assume that simply because everyone is an American and they know that there is a Constitution out there that they have ANY IDEA WHATSOEVER how it applies to them. You are going to have to teach them and it will have to start WAY BACK in the curriculum… like when they are kiddies… to give them a framework on which to hang many of these complex ideas that come from the Constitution. (And in case anyone has any doubt, that must include some working knowledge of the Bible).

This is not an attempt to proselytize. I don’t give a crap. Do what you want or do nothing at all regarding religion. I care a little bit but frankly, I don’t care enough to talk you guys into anything. I’m just saying that if you don’t understand how the system works at its foundation, your building is going to collapse. That foundation is the Bible, Roman Law and British Common Law.

That’s just my opinion… obviously. I’m the one who said it.

Alex Shrugged